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Classic Game of the Week  Super Mario Land
- By Eric Tajchman
In 1989, after battling with Tengen, Mirrorsoft, and Bullet-Proof Software over the publishing rights to Alexey Pajitnov’s Tetris, Nintendo launched its newest and hottest piece of hardware, the Game Boy. The concept of the Game Boy came from one of the greatest employees of Nintendo, Gunpei Yokoi, and his R&D1 team. The Game Boy was designed as a merger between the Game & Watch portable games released by Nintendo in the late 1970’s and the popular cartridge-based NES, which was the most successful home console system ever. It was a smash hit, and Nintendo sold all one million units allocated for the U.S. launch. Tetris was one of the main reasons for its success, as the game came bundled with the handheld system. Minoru Arakawa, former President of Nintendo of America, had pushed for the Russian puzzle title to be on the Game Boy, and his intuition about the popularity and success of Tetris was proven correct
Gunpei Yokoi [1941 – 1997] The Game Boy
But in order to keep gamers coming back for more, Nintendo knew they had to put some of its popular game franchises on the system. The first Nintendo character to lead the way on the Game Boy was obvious, Mario. Mario had proven to be a one of the most popular titles for the NES and was a guaranteed success on the Game Boy system. However, the title was not developed by Mario creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, but rather by Gunpei Yokoi and his R&D1 team. The game took a different direction than the classic Super Mario Bros. style, as Mario was given a spaceship and a submarine to pilot as well as retaining the original tried-and-true gameplay. Thus, Super Mario Land was born.
This time, Mario’s adventuring takes him to the lands of Sarasaland, where the evil space monster Tatanga has descended upon the land’s four kingdoms, Birabuto, Muda, Easton, and Chai. Using his hypnotic power, Tatanga controls the entire populace of Sarasaland with his magical spell. Not only that, he has kidnapped the princess of Sarasaland, Princess Daisy, and plans to marry her soon. It’s up to Mario to defeat Tatanga and save the inhabitants of Sarasaland and Princess Daisy.
 
The gameplay is similar to the original Super Mario Bros. with some new features added in. Mario can still grab Super Mushrooms, Fire Flowers, and Invincibility Stars to aid him in his adventure. However, instead of a dungeon being the final level of each world, the environments are varied. Mario can now pilot a submarine underwater (when Mario grabs a Fire Flower, the submarine is equipped with a blaster) and fly a spaceship to battle each world’s final boss. The level environments are also different from the original, as now sci-fi elements, such as spaceships and Sphinx-like lions, are littered throughout the game.
 
Mario can also gain items and 1-UPs in between levels by reaching the Special Goal. Each level (except the final level of each world) has two goals, a Normal Goal and a Special Goal. Whereas the Normal Goal is always attainable to proceed through the game, the Special Goal is harder to reach, and, as the game progresses, reaching the Special Goal becomes increasingly difficult. But, if you manage to reach it, you have the opportunity to play the Bonus Game where you choose a ladder combination that can take you to either a Fire Flower, 1-UP, 2-UP, or a 3-UP. This made proceeding through the game much easier.
 
Super Mario Land was a huge success and only caused the Game Boy to sell even better than before. It also proved the ingenuity and talent of the Nintendo great, Gunpei Yokoi, as the game was produced to utilize the Game Boy hardware. Millions of copies of the game were sold, and Nintendo had another hit console on its hands. No remake of the title has been made, so if you would like to play it, you’re going to need to buy the original Game Boy cartridge. It can be easily found on eBay or at a new/used video game retailer near you, and it’s definitely worth the search, as it retains the high quality and entertainment value that makes Mario titles fun.
Picture courtesy of The Mushroom Kingdom
- 8.16.2001 |
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